telephone

About our telephone services

What are local and national phone numbers?

A local number typically begins with 01 or 02. It's associated with a geographical area ( an "area code") and people have a high level of confidence in businesses with a local number. National numbers often start with 0800 or 0845. An 0800 number is free for the person calling; the call is paid for by the business who own the number. An 0845 number is often considered as a "safe" alternative when you want a single number to cover the whole UK. There are also new numbers beginning with 03 and 05 which are national numbers.

What we provide

We can give you a local or national number unique to your business. Getting a local or national telephone number for your business is simple, cheap and fast - you no longer have to get BT to install a second telephone line to make and receive telephone calls. If you work from a mobile and don't have a landline, it's no problem - calls can be diverted or forwarded to any number.

You can have any kind of number you think will best suit your business – it doesn’t matter if you live in Surrey or Spain, you can have a number from any UK area code or a national number. Local, geographic numbers can suggest you live or work anywhere in the UK so for example if you live in Cirencester or Liverpool you can still have a London number.

Calls can be diverted calls to any number of your choice. We send all calls to the number you have supplied – usually your mobile or landline. There is no delay; your caller doesn’t know that your call is being diverted.

Next steps

Choose the area code or national number you want for your business. We will send you a list of numbers which are currently available for that area. You can then pick a number and we'll reserve it for you. Once reserved, it's yours!

We also need to know where you want us to send incoming calls to your new number. We can simply divert all calls to your mobile or landline number. We can provide a fax number.

Please bear in mind a standard local number or 0845 number allows people to call you from UK landlines and mobiles at the standard rates for their telephone service. Local numbers are the normal way of numbering landlines and denote your location. An 0800 number doesn't cost the caller anything, but the call charges are instead charged to you. Contact us to discuss charges and options.